- A Medium post that appeared to be written by an assistant professor of African history and diaspora at
George Washington University sparked immediate backlash online, as the white professor said that she lied about being Black throughout her entire career. - In the post, Jessica A. Krug wrote that though she had at times claimed to be of North African descent, Caribbean descent, and from the Bronx, she is a white woman from the Kansas City area.
- "I am not a
culture vulture. I am a culture leech," Krug wrote, adding that she believed she should be "canceled." The post sparked immediate backlash online, particularly among academics, given Krug's expertise in African studies and issues of representation and colonialism. - In a statement provided to Insider, a GW spokesperson said that the university was "looking into the situation."
A George Washington University professor has come under fire after a post in her name admitted that she had lied about being Black for the entirety of her career.
The article, which was published on Medium and appeared to be written by the professor Jessica A. Krug, said that she had been living "under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim," at times having claimed to be of North African or Caribbean descent, and from the Bronx.
In reality, Krug is white, Jewish, and grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, according to the post, "The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies."
"I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech," Krug wrote, adding that she believed she should be "canceled."
The revelation sent shockwaves through academia, in part because of the subject she teaches. Krug is a scholar of African and African American history, and teaches courses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and African and Caribbean diasporas, according to her faculty profile on the university's website. Last year, Krug was a finalist for the prestigious Frederick Douglass Book Prize honoring nonfiction works on African American history.
Online, some pointed out that grants Krug had received were targeted toward Black scholars, raising further questions about the consequences of Krug's misrepresentation. Her admission also reminded many of the case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who famously purported to be Black. In 2015, Dolezal's story made national headlines after she was confronted by KXLY-4, a local
Crystal Nosal, a spokesperson for George Washington, told Insider that the university was "looking into the situation" but couldn't comment further. The university also said it could not confirm that the letter was written by Krug, but some of Krug's colleagues and others in her field said publicly that they believed the post was written by her.
Krug did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Duke University Press, which publishes Krug's book on Angola and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, "Fugitive Modernities: Kisama and the Politics of Freedom," did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For years, Krug had identified as Black or Latinx in blog posts. In an article for Essence that has since been deleted, she called herself a "boricua" — an informal term for someone who is Puerto Rican. In the biography associated with that post, as well as in blog posts for other sites, Krug called herself an "unreformed child of the hood."
"There is no ignorance, no innocence, nothing to claim, nothing to defend. I have moved wrong in every way for years," Krug wrote on Thursday.
—graham starr (@GrahamStarr) September 3, 2020
Many on Twitter reacted to the post with a mixture of confusion and betrayal. Screenwriter Hari Ziyad said in a tweet that he called Krug his friend until her admission. Ziyad said she had called him Thursday morning before the article published. He also speculated that Krug had written the post because someone had found out the truth.
"For years I defended her work, and her from her own self-loathing. I did it despite warnings from Black friends, from those who said she wasn't Black enough even if they could accept that she was Black, and from my own mind and body," Ziyad said.
—Hari Ziyad (@HariZiyad) September 3, 2020
Yomaira C. Figueroa, an assistant professor of global diaspora studies at Michigan State University, said in a tweet that several academics caught wind of Krug's secret at the end of August, and reiterated Ziyad's claim that Krug knew she had been discovered.
Figueroa said she felt like Krug "stole" everything she attained "by creating this identity."
—Dr. YoFiggy (@DrYoFiggy) September 3, 2020
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